1. Seminar on Trust Online – Input from Trustpilot By Peter Holten Mühlmann, Founder and CEO of Trustpilot

2. Agenda  Intro to Trustpilot  Use of reviews  Manipulation  Efforts to secure genuine reviews  Requests to the European Commission

3. Trustpilot  Worlds third largest company review site (after Yelp and Tripadvisor)  200 employees in New York, London and Copenhagen  7,000,000 reviews  Currently 400,000 new reviews per month  80,000 companies reviewed 3

4. Business Model  Free open review site  Free for merchants to respond to reviews and use basic services  Paid automation, insights, integration  Transparency  No possibility to buy positive ratings and reviews!  Activity is key!

5. What do you trust these days?

6. S01E17.720p.HDTV.X264-DIMENSION Help consumers make better choices Help companies to get good customer service and to be rewarded for having good customer service. Help consumers make better choices Help companies to get good customer service and to be rewarded for having good customer service. Mission:

7. Reviews are only valuable if trusted  Mission statement without any value unless we can secure and maintain the credibility of the reviews  Trustpilot business model depend on trustworthy information = credibility is extremely important  It is in Trustpilot’s pure interest that users (both companies and reviewers) can have faith in reviews; no faith no use

8. www.buyareview.com

9. Examples of manipulation  Fake reviews  Cherry picking (only inviting happy customers, incentives)  Gaming guidelines  Legal pressure

10. Highest Standard in Reviews Authenticity Auto-Detect Guidelines for use Email Invitation Audit Report for Investigation Special Agent ‘Bob’

11. In summary - Reviews are adding tremendous value to the marketplace - Manipulation of reviews will happen and cannot be avoided entirely - “97% who made a purchase based on an online review found the review to be accurate” (The Kelsey Group)

12. Request  EU regulation and harmonization  Stronger legal sanctions against cheaters  General guidelines to prevent fake reviews  Responsibility for content in accordance with the E-commerce directive  The most important thing is to ensure that reviews are expressing a correct overall image of a business  Objective criteria for inviting reviewers

13. Questions?

14. Appendix

15. Who reviews and why? Sharing positive experiences is reviewers main motivation*  74% state that they write reviews because they want to share a good experience with other travellers  78% state that they write reviews because they feel good about sharing useful information with other travelers * Tripadvisor

16. Further Reading Title and MediaLink ”In a Race to Out-Rave, 5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5” The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/technology/finding-fake- reviews-online.html ”The Best Reviews Money Can Buy” The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/business/book-reviewers- for-hire-meet-a-demand-for-online-raves.html?smid=pl-share “Give Yourself 5 Stars? Online, It Might Cost You” The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/technology/give-yourself-4- stars-online-it-might-cost-you.html?smid=pl-share ”How Aunt Ammy Gets Her Free Lunch: A Study of the Top- Thousand Customer Reviewers at Amazon.com” Freelunch.me http://www.freelunch.me/filecabinet ”Fake reviews plague consumer websites” The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jan/26/fake-reviews- plague-consumer-websites ”Online reviews – a guide for business & review platforms” Australian Competition & Consumer Commission http://www.accc.gov.au/publications/online-reviews-a- guide-for-business-review-platforms

17. Quality Assurance IP addresses IP geography v. user country v. domain Patterns in email addresses Browser information Social network patterns Fingerprinting... new components and parameters are continously tested and added. Automatic analysis and detection of suspicious reviews Analysis Component:

18. Trustpilot’s support & compliance organisation -Handling reported reviews from users and customers -Documentation regarding actual transactions (”proof of purchase”) -Assessing wording in review invitations from customers to secure compliance with (i) company guidelines and (ii) instructions from public authorities. Tasks 15 % of Trustpilot’s employees is dedicated to support and compliance to secure the quality of the reveiws

19. Submitting a review…  Submit email address  Accept Terms  Accept Guidelines for use  Ability to document purchase  … however; smooth submission is required to fulfil the purpose of providing a credible review platform